Step up board for the large swells

General Discussion
21

Cordell,

I asked about your timing, because I would consider sending you a full scale outline template, and bottom rocker template, of the board I would recommend.     If you don’t mind me asking, what is your weight, in pounds, not stones?      Take a look at my avatar, I’m riding a 34 pound 10’ 3’’ pintail gun.    At that time I weighed 170 pounds.   The board was 20% of my body weight, and in those kind of waves I could throw it around like a shortboard.   I hope you are planning to make the board a single fin.   That IS the best setup for waves of consequence.

Bill

22

Cloudbreak is a very large arena.  The take off zone runs up and down the long reef and the larger sets will break further out.  It’s 7 miles from the nearest large island, fully exposed to swell, wind and currents.  Conditions can change very quickly from hella fun to hella heavy.   

Took my son there on a two week trip when he was 16 as well,  back when we could stay on Viti Levu and take boats from Momi Bay each day to Cloudbreak.  My son, about 5’6 at the time, spent much more time on his 6’6 step-up then his 5’10 daily driver.  

Suggest you take the most board you would still be comfortable paddling, surfing, and hanging onto for dear life when caught inside.  Why you’re pondering your step-up. why not borrow a racy looking board from a bigger friend, cruise a few.  Give you an idea about paddle power and longer rail lengths, maybe help you decide on what board would work for you in well overhead to however big you want to surf.  don’t need excessive rocker out there, keep some volume in the chest, foil out everything else.  Get it glassed good, a little weight is a good thing with all the water moving, sometimes have to deal with wind, weight helps. 6/6,6 pretty typical for reef step-ups.

Keep this in mind.  If from the boat Cloudbreak looks bigger, heavier then you think you’re ready for, you’ll be right. Which means you should be back at Restaraunts, where your daily driver will work fine.  

Get good waves at Cloudbreak, it’s pretty magical.  My son got a good barrel on his very first wave at Cloudbreak, an overhead drainer that took him well over a hundred yards down the reef in a hurry.  He was never the same after…still isn’t…lol

If you happen to get scratched on the reef, pass on the ointments and such.  Just cut up some limes, grit your teeth, and scrub the reef scratches thoroughly.  Best disinfectant and healing accelerator for reef rash in the world, found out about it in Tahiti, works anywhere.   Have passed that on to many who have benefited (lemons don’t work, different enyzmes.)

have a safe trip, mate…make some magic of your own…

 

  

 

 

23

Cloudbreak is a very large arena.  The take off zone runs up and down the long reef and the larger sets will break further out.  It’s 7 miles from the nearest large island, fully exposed to swell, wind and currents.  Conditions can change very quickly from hella fun to hella heavy.   

Took my son there on a two week trip when he was 16 as well,  back when we could stay on Viti Levu and take boats from Momi Bay each day to Cloudbreak.  My son, about 5’6 at the time, spent much more time on his 6’6 step-up then his 5’10 daily driver.  

Suggest you take the most board you would still be comfortable paddling, surfing, and hanging onto for dear life when caught inside.  Why you’re pondering your step-up. why not borrow a racy looking board from a bigger friend, cruise a few.  Give you an idea about paddle power and longer rail lengths, maybe help you decide on what board would work for you in well overhead to however big you want to surf.  don’t need excessive rocker out there, keep some volume in the chest, foil out everything else.  Get it glassed good, a little weight is a good thing with all the water moving, sometimes have to deal with wind, weight helps. 6/6,6 pretty typical for reef step-ups.

Keep this in mind.  If from the boat Cloudbreak looks bigger, heavier then you think you’re ready for, you’ll be right. Which means you should be back at Restaraunts, where your daily driver will work fine.  

Get good waves at Cloudbreak, it’s pretty magical.  My son got a good barrel on his very first wave at Cloudbreak, an overhead drainer that took him well over a hundred yards down the reef in a hurry.  He was never the same after…still isn’t…lol

If you happen to get scratched on the reef, pass on the ointments and such.  Just cut up some limes, grit your teeth, and scrub the reef scratches thoroughly.  Best disinfectant and healing accelerator for reef rash in the world, found out about it in Tahiti, works anywhere.   Have passed that on to many who have benefited (lemons don’t work, different enyzmes.)

have a safe trip, mate…make some magic of your own…

 

  

 

 

24

Wow.  What an offer.  I would seriously think about this Cordell

25

icc,

i have tried my mates board out as you suggested, it was a 5’8’’ pin tail… They fastest thing i have ever surfed/riden. Mind you it was in reasonably large swell i think 6-8+ sets. I basically got the idea of getting something like that, from him. It is going to used for big reef breaks like indo/fiji/hawaii etc etc.

Cordell

26

this is an offer indeed!!..

ok, i am a student and i dont really do anything else out of school (except surf of course!) i come in at about 99.2 pound. I am interested and keen on finding out more about the template!!??!?!

thanks and much appreciated

Cordell

27

I’d listen to - Bill, he’s ridden some monsters.:smiley:

I bet you have to have your “game on” in waves like in Fiji…

Get a Six six - with your name on it.

28

Cordell,

What is it you want to know?     You haven’t told me the timing of your trip.     How soon?

Bill

29

im off on the 14th of june. what i want to know more on is about this full scale template of yours. 

you have been mentioning trying to give it to me?? was just wanting to know more information on it… how would i get it!!! that sort of thing

Cordell

30

      My recommendation would be for a board  6’ 8’’ x 18’'.     I would draw it out full scale on a roll of paper, and mail it to you.      You can then transfer half of that outline to some template material.       Or if time is too short, contact a Swaylock’s member who posts as ‘‘Thirdshade’’, he is in Oz, and has several of my templates.    I also made him an example of the pintail boards that I made on contract for LightningBolt, when they first launched the brand.    He is a highly skilled board builder in his own right, and is someone you should look into,  to possibly build the board for you.     If you contact him, ask if he can possibly post some photo’s of the pintail I built for him, in this thread, so you can see what the template looks like.   Your thoughts?

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

31

awesome… wow… 

I would be honoured to recieve these templates. I will contact Thirdshade and talk to him about this thread and explain what is going on. Id just get templates of him no actual board as i already have all that worked out. 

Cordell

32

Hey Farrelly Junior hopefully you’ll be designing/shaping the board??  You would be crazy not to seeing as though you have better resources than anyone on this site??

33

I had to think back many decades, but when I was 16, I was about your size. Under 5’ and about 110-120 lbs. My board was a 5’ 6" round pin probably 19" wide. A typical Hawaiian tear drop shape from the ‘70s. If you are riding boards under 5’ now, you may not want to go beyond 6’ or 6’ 2". That’s a big jump in size and it will feel really stiff. I went from that 5’ 6" board to a 6’ 2" swallow tail board, but that board had a low hips for the day. Looked weird for the times with the wide point about midway and a wider tail than the typical tear drop pins. In hindsight, that combination helped keep it looser for me.

Here’s a picture of me about 13-14 years old. I’m the little guy on the right. That board is 5’ 6" and it had a small diamond tail. The board I talk about above was very similar but it had a round pin. It was made by the same guy. I think I rode it in 4 to 6 foot North Shore waves (Hawaiian scale of the 70s, probably 8-12 foot faces). I went over the falls in the lip trying to get into the wave quite a bit on the bigger days.

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34

this thread is a new form of comedy  right? ** (-:**

 

 

 

 ** cheers huie**

35

Hey Cordell I have one of bill’s boards right here in cronulla if you want to swing by and look at it. Work of art and would get you into anything with ease but equally gets you out of trouble without thinking about it. Cheers rich

36

Hi thridshade have you actually ridden your 1971 flat rockered, down railed single fin at a wave of consiquence like big Shark Island? Cronulla Point? Maybe on your back hand at Voodoo??

I dare say it would get you INTO a lot of trouble.

I love single fins but the grommet’s not going to ride a 70’s single fin with an 8’’ kidney ripper of a fin at pumping Cloud Break??!!  It would be like turning up to the Bell’s WCT with MP’s board?

With all due respect to the long time board builders and the designs that got us to where we are…It’s 2014 guys!!  Some of you are stuck in a permanent time warp.

37

Marsh, i do agree with you…

I am now looking into shapes of my own, designing them and may be going to get a few or so cut.

Anyway, thank you for offering rich, but its a bit of a hassle to get down to cronulla for me.

Cheers

Cordell

38

Finally the little bugga got there - close to what I might have cut for him!

Might be too much under the back foot - but he can learn that for himsef.

Thanks to everybody.

MF

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39

Hello Marsh…totally agree with your comment of how Cordell should be doing it himself with his resources and knowledge thats stood right by him!

I was just offering the lad a look at a board…not advice.

I’m no big wave surfer…in fact I’m below average and no I’ve not tried the board I mentioned over here at any of the breaks you mentioned - have surfed a solid 6ft Porthleven where I came from on it and got to say it left me speechless…if you gogle porthleven surf you’ll see the wave - you decide if its a wave of consequence.

I can see where you’re coming from with the comment about it being 2014…my regular ride is an innegra wrappped carbon railed corked decked quad…but I’ll still stand by the board  Bill sent me - sort of broke a lot of the theories I’d assumed over the last 10 years of making boards.

Cheers

Rich

 

40

interesting design - kind of of wide in the ends for how narrow it is in the center. and thick for such a little guy. low rocker too… obviously made more for paddling fast and just holding on…out the back!!!